Gaga also announced “One World: Together At Home,” a televised event that will feature Paul McCartney, Elton John, Lizzo, David Beckham, John Legend and more.

She also took time to unpack the idea that "we're all in this together" by highlighting the disparity of how the virus affects certain people and communities.

“How should celebrities be responding to the coronavirus pandemic?” It might seem a futile question, given our ongoing public health crisis—but nonetheless, it’s a valid one to ask considering the cultural cache celebs have in our society.

“There is no good celebrity content right now,” Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson opined last week, arguing that celebs should consider staying silent. Of course, they have not. First there was Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot, who assembled her celebrity friends for a cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine," which, to put it lightly, was not received well. "No crisis—certainly not one as vast and unsettling as the current one—deserves this,” wrote the New York Times’s Jon Caramanica.

And then there is Lady Gaga. It seems strange to debate about the role—if any—a celebrity should play during this crisis, but Gaga has been a beacon, an example of one of the many effective ways public figures can use their platforms. Her efforts began on March 28 when Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, announced that he’d had “a very good” call with the pop star, in which she stated she was ready to support the organization, “in any way possible.”

Nine days later, on April 6, Gaga appeared in a World Health Organization press briefing to announce that she, along with the advocacy organization Global Citizen, had already raised $35 million for the WHO by reaching out to 68 corporate leaders and philanthropists. She explained that this money would go toward essential personal protective equipment supplies and testing kits around the world, and will also help in the efforts to improve lab capacity to rapidly process those tests.

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“I would like to reiterate our deep gratitude to the medical community,” Gaga said. “My heart is very achy and warm for those who are ER doctors as well as nurses who are sleeping in cars to make sure they don’t infect their families or their patients. What you are doing is putting yourself in harm’s way to help the world, and we all salute you.”

That same day, Gaga appeared on The Tonight Show to announce the One World: Together at Home COVID-19 entertainment special. The special, which will air on April 18 at 8 p.m. on ABC, NBC, CBS, iHeartMedia, Bell Media networks, YouTube, Apple, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and more platforms, will feature a robust line-up of performers, including Paul McCartney, Elton John, Lizzo, David Beckham, John Legend, Eddie Vedder, Kerry Washington, Chris Martin, J Balvin, Andrea Bocelli and Maluma, Idris Elba, Billy Joe Armstrong, Lang Lang, Kacey Musgraves, Alanis Morissette, Priyanka Chopra, Shah Rukh Khan, Keith Urban, and more.

"Put your wallets away, put your credit cards away, and sit back and enjoy the show that you very much deserve,” she said.

"I’ve been really focusing a lot of my energy on figuring out how I can help."

But perhaps most notably—and refreshing—is that in her Tonight Show appearance, Gaga also took a moment to acknowledge her own privilege, as well as the privilege of so many (not just celebrities) by highlighting some of the ways the coronavirus is disproportionately affecting communities and individuals.

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“I think that the fight that I’m in, the fight you [Jimmy Fallon] are in, is very different than the fight of a woman that is in perhaps an abusive relationship and has a child and lost her job and can’t feed her kid and can’t feed herself and also can’t get the help that she needs because she’s in a violent situation,” she said.

“There’s things that are going on in the underbelly not just of this country, but in countries all over the world, and I’ve been really focusing a lot of my energy on figuring out how I can help. Because we all want this to end, but being in this all together...that’s a tricky statement. Because what that woman is in...I want to honor that that woman is not in the same fight that I’m in, and I want to help her fight that fight.”

Gaga has also recently promoted her now-delayed album Chromatica, releasing the album cover to her rabid fans and appearing on the cover of the May issue of InStyle. At a time when some are saying that “celebrity culture is burning,” it’s nice to see that a celebrity can indeed use their levers of power for good, while also acknowledging the lesser fortunate within the same breath. That is a leader.

If you or someone you know needs support right now, reach out to these organizations:

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